TCM has been playing a lot of Loretta Young films lately, and I've enjoyed many of them while dismissing a few. This is one of the best.You may think you've seen a similar story before, and you probably have if you like old movies. But I think this is one of the earliest of this type of plot -- a young English barrister may become Attorney General, but his wife is blackmailed about his past...which she keeps a secret. While giving the blackmailer his money and retrieving incriminating letters, she becomes a witness who could save another man from being convicted of an unrelated murder. Of course, it is her husband that is trying the case! Unlike most 1930s mysteries, this one has some pretty sophisticated plot twists, although I didn't care for the final plot twist...though it didn't detract from the film.Loretta Young is beautiful and superb in her acting here. Kudos to her playing the young wife who is torn between her husband's career and saving an innocent man. The husband is played by Franchot Tone -- an actor that had his ups and downs -- this is one of the "ups". Again, kudos. The rest of the cast isn't particularly memorable, although they do their jobs. Most notable perhaps are Lewis Stone and Roland Young, although they aren't given much to do of any importance during the first half of the film...but then become critical to the story in the second half.I liked this film and highly recommend it!

Unguarded Hour, The (1936) *** (out of 4) A future D.A. (Franchot Tone) is being blackmailed over letters written to a former mistress so his wife (Loretta Young) goes to pay off the blackmailer (Henry Daniell). There's more to the story including the mistress being murdered as well as another murder case that took place where Young went to drop off the money but I won't go into much detail about those issues because how they come up is half the fun of the film. I really wasn't expecting much from this film but it turned out to be a very intelligent little thriller that has some great acting by the leads and supporting cast. Loretta Young is great as usual as the wife who must decide to save an innocent man's life or ruin the career of her husband. There's one scene in the film where Tone, Lewis Stone and Roland Young are putting on a fake trial and talking about how what seems to be hiding up guilt might just be the person telling the truth. This is a terrific little scene and all three actors really sell it perfectly. There's a lot of dialogue in this movie but director Wood keeps everything moving along at a fast pace. The title refers to an hour in every person's life where they can't prove where they were and there's no one there to back up where they might have been so if they were charged with a crime there's no way they could get out of it.

This 1936 film is a great film Classic with outstanding veteran actors who made this into a great dramatic story concerning Lady Helen Dudley Dearden, (Loretta Young) who tries to protect her husband from a past relationship with a young woman. Sir Alan Dearden (Franchot Tone) is an outstanding lawyer who is about to be chosen as Attorney General and his wife Lady Helen is being blackmailed by Hugh Lewis (Henry Daniell) with a bunch of love letters that Sir Alan had sent to this woman. The story gets quite involved with a man being accused of killing his wife and also another murder of a woman Sir Alan had an affair with. There is a very tricky ending to this film that you will not be able to figure out until the very ending of this film. Roland Young, (William "Bunny" Jeffers ) gave a great supporting role to this great film classic.

The ever graceful and dynamic Loretta Young had a deservedly long movie career from the silent era until the early 1950's. She then turned to television with the popular "Letter to Loretta," where she is well remembered for her entrance sashaying through a door wearing a swirling skirt. "The Unguarded Hour" is from her early talky days in Hollywood before going on to win an Oscar for her fantastic performance in "The Farmer's Daughter." Loretta plays one of her usual roles as Lady Helen Dudley Dearden a dutiful wife who stands by her husband, the debonair Franchot Tone as Sir Alan Dearden who is on his way to the top of the legal profession in England about to be appointed the youngest attorney general ever. Then appears a blackmailer Hugh Lewis played with his usual aura of chicanery by Henry Daniell. Lady Dearden must pay for some indiscreet old love letters written by Sir Alan to a lover before he met m'lady or the letters will be made public possibly destroying him professionally. Lady Dearden unwittingly finds herself a mystery woman in one of her husband's murder cases. The plot thickens until Sir Alan himself becomes a suspect in the same case. All must be unraveled with a few surprises along the way before the somewhat hasty ending to a well made film.As with most movies based on plays, there is too much verbiage from time to time but director Sam Wood is able to make things move faster than many similar type vintage mysteries from the same period.